426 . AVES. 
longer neck, the bill more equal, and not so thick a body; they walk 
better, and feed on aquatic plants and seeds as much as on fish, &c. 
The inflations of their trachea consist of a bony and cartilaginous 
homogeneous substance. They also admit of some subdivisions. 
Ruyncnaspis, Leach. 
A subgenus very remarkable for a long bill, the upper mandible 
of which, forming the exact half of a perfect cylinder, is widened at 
the end. Its lamellz are so long and delicate that they resemble 
hairs. These birds feed on small worms, which they obtain from 
the mud on the edge of brooks, &c. 
An. clypeata, L..; Souchet commun, Enl. 971, 9725 Frisch, 161, 
162, 163; Wils. VIII, Ixvii, 7; Naum. 49, f. 70, 71 (The Shove- 
ler). A beautiful duck, with a green head and neck, white 
breast, red belly, and brown back; the wings are variegated with 
white, ash colour, green, brown, &e. It visits France in the 
spring, and is excellent game. The lower part of its trachea is. 
but slightly inflated. It is the Chenerotes of Pliny. 
An. fasciata, Sh., Nat. Misc. pl. 697, is another species found 
in New Holland. The edges of its upper mandible are extended 
on each side into a membranous appendage. 
rg 
Tapvorna.(1) 
The bill very much flattened towards the end, and bulging into 
a salient lump at base. 
An. tadorna, L.; Enl. 53; Frisch, 166; Naum. I, c. 55, f. 103 
and 104, (The Shieldrake. ) The most highly coloured of all the 
European Ducks: white: the head green; a cinnamon-coloured 
cincture round the breast; the wing varied with black and white, 
red and green. Common on the shores of the North Sea, and 
of the Baltic, where it lays inthe downs, and frequently in holes 4 
abandoned by rabbits. Its bifurcation is inflated into two nearly 
similar osseous capsules. 
Some Ducks of this second division have some naked parts about 
the head, and very often a lump on the base of the bill. ° 
In. moschata, L., Enl. 989, commonly but improperly called 
The Muscovy Duck; originally from South America, where it is 
still found in its wild state, and where it perches on trees; is 
now very common in our poultry yards, where it mixes with 
(1) Tudorne, the name of this bird in Belon. Buffon, following Turner, mis- 
took it for the Chenalopex of the ancients. 
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